Sunday, 27 February 2011

Since my original post on this I have spent a fair amount of time doing some research and amassing parts and ideas which have begun to find there way into my initial test model (shaping up to be Tanith scout Bonin) seen below.

As I wanted to keep my guardsmen to a realistic scale and proportions I've used Elysian guardsmen legs (from Forgeworld) as a base and sculpted the torso, neck and arms on top since there is a lack of pieces in the GW and Forgeworld ranges that fit with the look I'm going for for these. I have also removed the kneepads, thigh padding and harness straps from the legs and replaced them with a look more fitting with the Adrian Smith artwork I am using for inspiration.

There are still a lot of details to add, and this is obviously still very WIP, but I figured I would share it since I feel it is a sizeable step forward in the progress. Incase you are wondering about the pose - he's going to be moving silently to the edge of the wall he has his back to, weapon raised in his left arm ready to break cover and bring down the enemies of the Imperium.

More soon! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Finally got around to finishing this figure - first of the year! A nice sculpt but with a few headaches due to typical Forgeworld cast issues (though much improved over the quality from about 3 yeard ago!). The jump pack in particular had a few ugly areas.

The other area I always find a little frustrating is the round metal dimples on the jump pack - painting metal over white is always an issue!

The paintjob is a bit predictable being fairly similar to the one on the Forgeworld site with the exception of the fully gold hammer and the gold raven on the jump pack top. I felt that it was important to emphasise his captain status with plenty of bling.

The base was a bit of an after-thought on this figure as I really just wanted to get him finish. It turned out ok, but there are areas I think could be improved. Still, I think the sand/dirt colour contrasts the armour quite nicely.

I spent the afternoon doing some early work on the first test model for the upcoming Tanith project too. I've settled on putting together (at least some) of the Gereon mission team.

Saturday, 5 February 2011

The Tanith are coming. A few years ago I converted up a couple of Blood Pact warriors inspired by the fantastic Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett. At the time I had always intended to get round to doing some Tanith and that time has finally come.

While there are metal models for Tanith guardsmen released by GW a good few years back now, these don't fit with either the cover artwork for the novels by Adrian Smith (below), or my own personal mental image of how they should look. Therefore, the majority of the models I will be putting together will be sculpted.

At the moment I'm pulling together inspiration artwork and bits and pieces for the models. I do have a question for any of you more knowledgable readers though...

Does anyone have any good descriptions for appearance of the following characters and their tattoos: